Puppy classes

Link as a puppy.

When I had Link I didn't attend any puppy classes. I figured I would train him at home and that he would be exposed to enough dogs through my job as a assistant at a veterinary clinic where many of the employees bring their dogs to work. He got along with everyone and everything so well, that I could not in my wildest imagination see that this would ever be a problem. But then disaster struck. He got ED, elbow dysplasia, at the tender age of 9 months. He was put on pain meds and kept from other dogs, not allowed to play nor go for longer than 10 minutes walks. He had surgery at 11 months of age and then a 2 month long period of inactivity before he begun more active rehabilitation.

Link, the Danish Swedish farm dog Sally and a mix breed dog named Snusan. Link was fine with dogs he knew or at least had had a chance to meet and check out.

After all that, he started being dog reactive and before long he literally lunged towards all dogs we met on walks. I got a lot of help from other dog people and I also participated in a course for dogs with dog reactivity/aggression. Things got better, but never good. Link was always good with other dogs when off leash, but walking him on leash always meant that I had to keep an eye on our surroundings to make sure we wouldn't come too close to other dogs. It wasn't always very pleasant.. So we most of the time tried to time our walks to when there are as few other dogs as possible out and about.

Off leash Link never had a problem with other dogs.

As you might understand, I am hoping to avoid this problem all together with Eddie. That is why we are now participating in a puppy class and also trying to attend the local retriever clubs training sessions on Tuesdays. We have also participated in a few field training sessions with the same club. So far everything is going really well, lets hope it continues like this! What is most important is working on keeping calm and focused around other dogs. Eddie is relatively good at both those things, but we have to continue working on it. Wish us good luck!

Eddie at a training session with the retriever club.